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Smartphones top computers for U.S. Facebook time

The average time spent accessing Facebook via smartphone in the United States was 441 minutes in March, compared with 391 minutes via computer, according to comScore, underscoring the increasingly high-profile role of mobile in social networking.

comScore's new Mobile Metrix 2.0 report showed U.S. smartphone users spent 441 minutes per month, or 7 hours and 21 minutes, on Facebook in March. That compares with 391 minutes, or 6 hours and 31 minutes, for people who tapped into Facebook via a computer.

comScore Introduces Mobile Metrix 2.0, Revealing that Social Media Brands Experience Heavy Engagement on Smartphones [news release]comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the U.S. launch of Mobile Metrix® 2.0, its next generation mobile behavioral measurement service. Mobile Metrix 2.0 brings comScore's Unified Digital Measurement™ to smartphone devices, combining passive on-device measurement with census-level data to provide one of the most accurate and detailed views into actual U.S. mobile media usage across apps and mobile browsing.

"The introduction of Mobile Metrix 2.0 represents the culmination of significant product development to bring the market detailed behavioral measurement of mobile media usage, including access from both mobile browser and apps," said Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of mobile. "This completely retooled and enhanced version of the service is the mobile analog to comScore's flagship Media Metrix product, bringing critical insights such as audience size and demographics to the mobile marketplace. In addition to the granularity of reporting between mobile browser and apps across operating systems, Mobile Metrix 2.0 also enables a unified view of media properties' total mobile reach, providing both advertisers and publishers with the actionable insights necessary to optimize their mobile strategies."

82 Percent of Time Spent with Mobile Media Happens Via Apps

Mobile Metrix 2.0 enables reporting of unduplicated audience sizes across app and browser usage, providing a comprehensive view of the complete media brand reach on mobile devices. Among smartphone users age 18 and older accessing from iOS, Android and RIM smartphones, Google Sites ranked as the top property with nearly 94 million unique visitors, representing 96.9 percent of the mobile audience. Facebook ranked second with 78.0 million visitors (80.4 percent reach), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 66.2 million visitors (68.2 percent reach) and Amazon Sites 44.0 million visitors (45.4 percent reach).

Analysis of the share of time spent across apps and browsers revealed that even though these access methods had similar audience sizes, apps drove the lion's share of engagement, representing 4 in every 5 mobile media minutes. Analysis of the top properties also revealed widely varying degrees of time spent between app and browser access methods. On Facebook, the top ranked mobile media property by engagement, 80 percent of time spent was represented by app usage compared to 20 percent via browser. Twitter saw an even higher percentage of time spent with apps at 96.5 percent of all minutes. In contrast, Microsoft Sites was among brands that saw browser access driving a majority of usage at 82.1 percent.

Top Apps Vary by iOS and Android Users

Mobile Metrix 2.0 also offers the ability to segment consumer activity across iOS, Android and RIM platforms, providing further insight into today's smartphone consumer. Analysis of the top iPhone and Android apps by size of audience found differences in the top apps accessed by the two operating systems. System apps topped the list for both iOS and Android, with Apple iTunes reaching nearly the entire iPhone app audience in March while 93.2 percent of Android users visited the Android app market.

Google Search ranked as the second largest app by Android audience size reaching 44.9 million users (84.1 percent reach). Google Maps led as the top map app on both platforms reaching 91.2 percent of iPhone users and 74.5 percent of Android users. The Facebook mobile app ranked within the top five apps on both platforms, securing the #3 spot among iPhone users (80 percent reach) and the #5 position with Android users (68.9 percent reach).

Smartphones Drive Significant Engagement for Leading Social Networking Brands

Social networking proved to be a particularly popular activity on smartphones with several brands demonstrating exceptionally high engagement, in some cases higher than the corresponding time spent by users via traditional web access. Facebook once again led the pack among social networking brands, with the average Facebook mobile user engaging for more than 7 hours via browser or app in March. The 25.6 million Twitter mobile users (excluding usage via third-party apps) had an average engagement of nearly 2 hours during the month. By comparison, people visiting on their computers spent just 20.4 minutes on Twitter.com, highlighting the importance of mobile engagement for mobile-centric brands. Pinterest, which has seen its adoption explode in recent months, reached 7.5 million smartphone visitors who engaged with the brand for nearly an hour. Location-based social network Foursquare attracted 5.5 million mobile visitors at an average of nearly 2.5 hours, while Tumblr reached an audience of nearly 4.5 million who engaged for 68 minutes during the month.www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2012/5/Introducing_Mobile_Metrix_2_Insight_into_Mobile_Behavior